The present invention relates to a method for analyzing at least one fault present on a platform.
The platform is advantageously an aircraft, such as a civil or military airplane. A platform of this type has a large number of distinct mechanical, electric, and electronic operating systems. These systems are often interconnected.
Such systems can therefore create a multitude of distinct faults that result in a plurality of observable symptoms on the platform.
The observable symptoms are for example fault codes, which in particular identify self-test results, electrical system integrity test results, or sensor and actuator test results. Other data, such as the status of the aircraft, or the position of a valve, can be measured and taken into account as symptoms to identify the detailed configuration of the aircraft in the context of the event creating the observed symptoms.
In certain cases, the number and variety of observed symptoms makes it extremely complex to determine the faulty system(s) capable of creating the symptoms.
Subsequently, the maintenance procedures to be performed on the device may be very complicated and require considerable analysis time.
To partially offset this problem, it is known to associate a set of symptoms with a plurality of equations that determine, as a function of the captured symptoms signature, whether that signature corresponds to a theoretical signature of a defined fault, based on equations.
Equation analysis methods are limited as to their ease of use and the relevance of the results obtained. In fact, once the captured signature does not correspond to the theoretical signature, it is difficult to determine the origin of the fault. The equations defining the signature are also complex by nature, inasmuch as the functional system has a complicated structure.
This type of method is therefore not fully satisfactory, since these methods sometimes lead to replacing equipment assumed to be faulty, and which, once replaced, does not resolve the fault. In certain cases, a large quantity of suspect equipment must be replaced to resolve the fault.
All of these hard-to-resolve faults lead to unwanted immobilizations of the aircraft, or interventions by the builder.
One aim of the invention is therefore to establish an analysis method that makes it possible to determine, globally and quickly, the origin of complex faults present on an aircraft, without using complex mathematical models.